Punjab Study

LAHORE, April 3: The South Asia Forum for Education Development (SAFED) and Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) are organising a two-day international conference on “Quality – Inequality Quandary – Transacting Learning Relevance and Teacher Education in South Asia” at a local hotel from Wednesday (tomorrow).

The conference, being organised in collaboration with Education Testing Service (ETS), Princeton; UK aid; and Foundation Open Society Institute; will have eight sessions.

The inaugural session will be addressed by top educationists ASER Centre India director Dr Rukmini Banerji and ITA (Programmes) director Baela Raza Jamil. While, Education Testing Service (ETS), Princeton, Senior Vice-President Dr Michael Mettles will speak through video conference. The session will be chaired and co-chaired by MNA Bushra Gohar and Punjab Planning and Development department chairman Javed Aslam, respectively.

The second session on “Learning relevance and learning outcomes: at what cost?” will be chaired and co-chaired by MNA Saira Afzal Tarar and Punjab University Faculty of Education dean Prof Dr Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal.

The other six sessions will discuss subjects – “Early beginnings for bridging the Quality Inequality Gap”, “Teacher education models that work” (two sessions), “Education financing for bridging the inequality gaps”, “Learning relevance and learning outcomes; at what cost?”.

The conference will discuss the contextualisation of challenges of curriculum/learning relevance and inequality (early years to secondary education) reflected in learning outcomes and assessment studies.

It will also explore good practices and policies for bridging the inequality gaps through contemporary approaches of ‘what works’; build communities of practice for research, sharing resources and ideas for transformative models of learning; and explore innovative financing options for addressing the quality-inequality gaps.Dawn.